Adults

As an adult, and a regular moviegoer, I couldn't help but be amused by the results of your poll ("Adults Less Likely to Go to the Movies," by Amy Wallace, March 14). I believe that this falls into the category of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The studios make movies for teenagers, so teenagers are the ones who go to the movies. If they make movies for people whose IQ exceeds their age, maybe adults will attend. In Orange County, adults are also faced with what I refer to as "Edwards censorship" regarding what we see. Edwards has a near monopoly on movie screens in O.C., and they dictate what we get to view.

A second 16-year-old suspect in the Fresno shooting rampage that left one dead and nine wounded will be tried as an adult. Juvenile Court Referee Phillip Silva ordered Friday that Dwight Tamplin stand trial as an adult for first-degree murder and 17 other criminal charges in connection with the Labor Day weekend shooting spree. Silva said Tamplin was unfit to be tried as a juvenile because of his previous criminal history and a record of failing to respond to rehabilitation.

April 26, 1990 | SHERRY ANGEL, Sherry Angel is a regular contributor to Orange County Life.

With an arm around each youngster's waist, Melissa Gagne spins her two students around in the water in a game of "ring around the rockets," then carries them to the side of the pool. Still wearing big grins, the preschoolers are scooped up in warm towels and praised by their parents. For them, the swimming lesson at Los Caballeros Sports Village in Fountain Valley has been a half-hour of playtime. But for the two students getting into the pool next, it's going to be hard work.

Now that all the kids are suited up in "Batman Forever" T-shirts, drinking from "Casper" mugs and playing with "Mighty Morphin Power Ranger" action figures, the major studios are looking for ways to bring their parents into the merchandising fold. "The competition for the kids market is brutal," said Neil Newman, vice president of marketing for Viacom consumer products. "In order to grow the business, we must grow the adult segment. If it's done correctly, there's a lot of money to be made."

When she was 18, the mother of a 21-year-old recalled, she could hardly wait to go away to school and move out of her parents' house. Most of her friends felt the same way. Nobody knew who they went out with, where they went, what they did or when they got in. Her son, on the other hand, lives at home and likes it. A junior in the Cal State system, he doesn't have to pay rent or buy groceries. "He has a TV, a computer and a double bed. What more could a guy want?

The first few innings had been ego-bruisers for Richard Martell's band of middle-aged softball players. "We were down by six runs," recalls Martell, a 39-year-old vice president of a Los Angeles home furnishings store. Then came the last inning. With two outs, two on and Martell's team ahead by two, the batter smacked the ball to the second baseman, who tagged the base. "Out!" thought Martell. "Safe!" cried umpire Joel Rosenzweig, who was also a member of the opposing team. "You're wrong!"

Get caught napping on the job these days and you could be out looking for another one. But in the workplace of the future, you might be able to snooze your way to the top. "I try to take a nap just about every day," says Gerald Celente, director of the Socio-Economic Research Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y., a consulting firm that works with corporate clients to predict business and social trends that may affect them.

After leaving college at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh last year to move to Los Angeles, 23-year-old Odin Gray debated for several months whether to buy a health insurance policy. An avid bicyclist, he finally decided in December that it was time to buy coverage. "I knew that if anything happened," Gray recalled, "I was going to be in serious trouble and that it could bankrupt me financially. " His decision, it turns out, was a smart one. In January - just one month after buying a policy - he took a spill on his bike while heading to work, he said.

I desperately missed my youngest child when she was far from home this year, studying for six months in Denmark. But her five weeks back home this summer left me ready to pack her stuff, load the boxes in my car and drive her up to San Francisco this week for her final year of college. Now I'm back to just one grown daughter - a college grad with a part-time job - living with me at home. And that is more than enough for this parented-out single mom. I love my three girls - young women now, at 26, 23 and 21. I enjoy their company and am glad they still like spending time with Mom. But there's only so much "Sex in the City," Wiz Khalifa and "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" that a mother can stand.

Childhood abuse and neglect produce severe emotional and social dysfunction in adulthood, researchers said Saturday. Children who are abused or neglected grow up to have lower IQs and lower reading scores, three different research groups reported here at a meeting of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science. They are also more likely to suffer from alcohol and drug abuse, to suffer clinical depression or to attempt suicide.